I am gradually tracking down all the Padres’ winter-league assignments. Bear with me…
Friday, October 12
Arizona Fall League
Javelinas 8, Saguaros 3 (box score). Matt Antonelli, batting eighth for the Saguaros, went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. He’s 0-for-9 with a walk so far. Reader JP compares Antonelli to former big-leaguer Steve Sax, and it’s not a bad call, although I liken him more to one of Sax’s contemporaries, Bill Doran, who had a bit more power.
Mexican Pacific League
Mochis 6, Navojoa 0 (box score). Oscar Robles went 0-for-3 with a walk in a losing cause. Robles also hit a two-out, walk-off grand slam on Thursday to account for all of his team’s runs in a 4-2 victory over Obregon.- Hermosillo 13, Mexicali 2 (box score). Jared Wells worked a scoreless ninth. Way to keep that 14th run from coming home…
Saturday, October 13
Arizona Fall League
Mesa 4, Saguaros 0 (box score). Right-hander Jonathan Ellis starts the eighth. He allows a one-out double to Sam Fuld, who then steals third and scores on a throwing error by Nick Hundley. Yep, that sounds like the Padres. After a visit to the mound by the pitching coach, Ellis gets Dusty Brown looking with the bases loaded to end the threat.
Ellis allowed one run on two hits and two walks in his only inning of work. He also fanned two batters, despite the fact that 16 of his 31 pitches missed the zone. Hundley struck out in his only at-bat.
Mexican Pacific League
- Mochis 9, Navojoa 4 (box score). Robles singled and doubled in five at-bats out of the leadoff spot. Luis Cruz went 1-for-4 with a double and 2 RBI. Interestingly, Robles is playing shortstop, while Cruz — a middle infielder by trade — has been starting in center field. Cruz committed an error in Saturday’s loss, allowing a runner to advance to third on a double. As best I can tell, this is Cruz’ first action in the outfield as a pro.
Venezuelan Winter League
- Aragua 4, Caracas 0 (box score). Jose Lobaton, a switch-hitting catcher who spent ’07 at Lake Elsinore, knocked a pinch infield single in the ninth. It was one of just three hits by Caracas on the night (the other two coming off the bat of ex-Padre farmhand Peeter Ramos).
Sunday, October 14
Mexican Pacific League
- Mochis 5, Navojoa 4, 14 innings (box score). Ho-hum, another 2-for-5 performance from Robles in the leadoff spot. Cruz, batting ninth, did the same. He started the game in center field and ended it at third base.
- Hermosillo 8, Mexicali 4 (box score). Steve Watkins got lit like a Roman candle again. He’s allowed three homers and seven walks in eight innings over two starts. Not good.
Venezuelan Winter League
- La Guaira 4, Caracas 3 (box score). Right-hander Paul Abraham, who enjoyed a strong campaign at San Antonio in ’07, worked a scoreless eighth and held the lead before La Guaira scored three in the bottom of the ninth to pull out the victory. Abraham turns 28 in January and was spending his third season at Double-A, so don’t get too excited.
Mmmm, Mochi(s)!
Offered without comment:
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20071015&content_id=2266308&vkey=ps2007news&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
Okay, I lied… here’s my comment. Almost always really bad advice. But especially in Denver.
D’backs need to try something different? Why go halfway… let Webb leadoff and play CF, have Valverde at SS and bat cleanup, and Byrnes on the mound.
2: That’s incredibly stupid. Playing for one run especially against an offense like Colorado’s isn’t a good idea.
Didn’t you get the memo? Batters magically improve their clutchiness in ABs following a sac bunt. And, of course, Tony Clark’s AB would have turned out the same way had there been a different outcome in front of him.
Attention Rox: I believe there is a rule (written or understood) that states you must lose every once in a while…
Incredible! This has got to be one of the most dominating runs in baseball history. 21 wins in the last 22 games (assuming they hold on to win tonight).
Keith Law said something optimistic about a Padres prospect! He called Danny Payne “a big leaguer, probably an everyday CF”. w00t.
My pain will ease if the Rockies sweep the World Series. They are the team of destiny….
Arizona beating them was all part of the plan.
http://www.baseballthinkfactory.org/files/oracle/discussion/2008_zips_projections_san_diego_padres/
ZIPS projections for the Padres next year. Dan Szymborski, who runs ZIPS, thinks they possibly peg the Pads as the best team in the NL next year, assuming the center field hole gets addressed.
Congrats Rocks, it just affirms the saying that getting hot at the right time really helps.
Can’t help but wonder had the Padres taken care of Mil when they had nothing left to play for. Had Trevor….oh never mind.
Will say that Dbacks and Padres had similar hitting, meaning not much hitting at all. In the open spots for next year, Kevin, please get some speedy hitters who hit for high avg. The rocks hit some pitches that the Padre hitters never would have even seen. We have pitching, we need line drive hitters. Either that or bring the fences in 20 ft.
I have a hunch that Scott Hairston’s past is indeed the past. He will develop into a good player that will not be a .246 hitter but rather a .280 hitter with 20-25 bombs and 80-90 rbi’s.
9: People eventually may tire of me writing this, but we scored more runs in 2007 than we had in 2006 or 2005, despite almost no speed and the worst batting average of the period. If we’d had even an average hitter at 2b we might have scored 800 runs. The main problem with the offense wasn’t a lack of speed or a low batting average, it was the non-entity at 2b. 7 starting positions had an OPS+ of 98 or higher. NOG was 67, Blum was 83. If you synthesize the left fielders they’re close to 100, too.
And we don’t have enough pitching. We have 3 starters. Maddux is ancient (no offense, Mad Dog) and Young has been hurt the last 2 years. The 4th and 5th spots were awful most of the season. Better depth there and we might be the team waiting for the AL to finish up.